That Time An Inmate Tried To Sue The Prison System Over A Broken Dreamcast

A while back we looked at the veritable treasure trove of Dreamcast-related stories that the BBC News archive represents. There are a multitude of contemporary news articles on the birth and death of the Dreamcast, locked in time in the BBC's extensive catalogue of long forgotten reports, and they do make for interesting reading.

There's one particular news piece I missed though, and it serves as an interesting glimpse not only into the past, but also into the life of convicts held at Her Majesty's pleasure in UK prisons. Hidden away on the BBC News site is this rather intriguing report from April 2006, which documents the efforts of a prisoner at Scotland's Perth Prison to claim damages of £350 from the Scottish Executive (the authority responsible for prisons) for damage to his Dreamcast console.

The case was eventually thrown out by Perth Sheriff Court, but not before the complainant accused prison officers of purposely breaking his Dreamcast. The article doesn't say how the console was broken (and the Scottish Courts website has no record of the hearing), but I'm going to guess that to make it totally inoperable they probably used it as a football. If it'd been a Gamecube, they could've driven a monster truck over it and it would still have worked; but then, a Gamecube can also double up as a deadly weapon when swung at another human so probably not the best console to allow into a prison. Anyway, here's the full article:

New Subway Commercial Features A Dreamcast

Never let it be said that we here at the Junkyard let any hint of a Dreamcast - no matter how slight - go undocumented. The latest appearance in media approaching 'mainstream' of our beloved console comes in a new web commercial for Subway's latest sandwich - the Reuben:

Keep an eye on the bottom left of the video. Thanks to Facebook group member Preston Weaver for bringing this to our attention!

ICYMI. Is that arrow big enough? Hmm...

Naturally, the Dreamcast appeared in its own series of advertisements, many of which we have documented in the not too distant past.

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Flashback For Dreamcast Will Ship With Even More Bonus Content

We recently reviewed the upcoming Dreamcast port of Delphine Software's incredible science fiction adventure title Flashback, and we found that it was most excellent. A sort of amalgamation of the best bits of all the other ports out there, JoshProd's newly compiled and officially sanctioned Flashback ticked all the boxes for this nostalgia-loving gamer. One of the most impressive aspects of the overall package (apart from the fact that Flashback is an awesome game, period) is that it has a host of bonus features which are exclusive to the Dreamcast version. Graphics filters, extended cinematic sequences and even the original 16-bit versions in both PAL and NTSC flavours are all included.

There has been a bit of concern in the Dreamcast community about the continued delay of the release of Flashback, with those who have ordered it online being quite vocal about the fact that it was due to ship in September, but here we are in November and it still hasn't been released. Well, we can reveal that the game is now due to ship imminently if you bought the PAL boxed version, with the NTSC boxed versions due a mere matter of weeks later. And the reason for the delay?

SLaVE Developers Seeking Assistance With Bug Squashing

The release of Jay Townsend's SLaVE appears to be tantalisingly close, and I for one am very much looking forward to getting to grips with the neon-hued retro-futuristic world presented by this Dreamcast exclusive first person shooter. First announced several years ago, SLaVE has had a long and storied development which has been mired with technical issues; but there is light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak. In the latest email bulletin to those who have pre-ordered the game from GOAT Store, the publishers have included an appeal for Dreamcast programmers to come forward and help to squash the final few bugs that are preventing the production process beginning. Here's the email in full:

Hi everyone,

We wanted to send out a quick update on Jay Townsend's SLaVE production.  Basically, since the last announcement, we have gotten to the point that we think there is just a single bug holding back production. We were hoping that we could get rid of this last one and then be able to send out an email with a solid production timeline.

As of right now, that bug still exists. If you happen to know anything about GDB debugging, it has to do with an exception fault, contact us, as there is just one the developers are having the toughest time tracking down, and maybe a set of new eyes can fix it and get the game ready to go in a few minutes!  One can hope ;)

For those of you that don't know what the above means, basically, there is still a certain set of circumstances that cause the game to crash out. It happens *extremely* rarely, so much so that we have played the final version for stretches without knowing it is there, but often enough that we can't send the game out with it. It sounds like an easy thing that we should just get rid of, and we agree... but sadly, things like this can be super difficult to track down.

In a previous email, we had stated we expected the final bug hunt to take 2-3 months, and then a test period of 2-4 weeks, which is where we're at right now.  We're not TOO far off having production start, but we've got to nail this last thing.

We expect the next email you receive from me will be the email telling you that it is complete and in production, and to confirm your addresses.  Thank you so much for sticking around as a supporter, and we can't wait to have this in your hands.  As always, if you want to cancel for any reason, please contact us back and we will refund your order.

Happy gaming!

Gary Heil & Dan Loosen
GOAT Store Publishing

So, are you up to the challenge? If so, go here to the GOAT Store website and get in touch with Dan Loosen to see if you can help get one of the most promising looking indie Dreamcast games out of development hell and into our GD-ROM drives.

For all of the articles we've previously published on SLaVE, click here.

DreamPod - Episode 53

[iTunes][Stitcher][Buzzsprout][UK Podcast Directory][YouTube]

Feel free to join our Facebook group, like our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter; and if you’re feeling flush and/or generous our Patreon is here. Oh, and one last thing - give us an iTunes review if you can be bothered. Cheers!

Articles related to this episode include:

• Compact Flash Dreamcast
• Cave Story on Dreamcast
• Review: Flashback
• Intrepid Izzy
• Dreamcast: The Collected Works

Sonic Adventure Soundtracks Getting The Vinyl Treatment

I don't own any vinyl. Come to think of it, I only own a few CDs (the last one I bought was Liam Gallagher's new album, you should check it out). Instead, like most digital whores I buy most of my music on the iTunes; but if I was a trendier type I'd probably buy my music on vinyl. Simply because it makes you look cool when you go to an actual record shop and buy an actual record. Anyway, as with a lot of trends these days that look to the past, the release of game soundtracks on vinyl has become very popular and now the Sonic Adventure soundtracks are getting the same treatment.

Coming from Brave Wave, these two LPs take the original Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2 track listings and package them up in lovely looking sleeves full of officially licensed artwork. There'll also be booklets with interviews and such like:

The first pressing will contain special vinyl colors that represent the essence of both games: blue and white 180-gram vinyl for SONIC ADVENTURE and blue and red 180-gram vinyl for SONIC ADVENTURE 2. All pressings after the first will contain standard black 180-gram vinyl. All versions of both albums will include a comprehensive booklet featuring a reflective interview with Jun Senoue and head of Sonic Team Takashi Iizuka, as well as Liner Notes by John Linneman of Digital Foundry, song lyrics and character art.

- Brave Wave website

The recent glut of retro video game soundtracks being released on vinyl shows just how popular these collections are getting, with Shenmue, Streets of Rage and other classic titles all having their audio tracks released on the format to critical and commercial acclaim. Will you be picking either of these up? Let us know in the comments, in our Facebook group or on Twitter.

Find out more information on these two releases by visiting the Brave Wave website here.

Source: SEGAbits

Spooky Happenings In Ready 2 Rumble

One of the most interesting and useful components of the Dreamcast's operating system is that it features an internal calendar and clock function. While this may seem pretty standard today, back in the late 1990s this wasn't the case, with many preceding platforms (and even contemporary hardware, such as the N64) eschewing such features at a system level. The Dreamcast was by no means the first console to employ an internal clock and calendar, but I'd wager it was the first one to make meaningful use of it in a way that actually had any significant importance in gameplay.

Games like Metropolis Street Racer use the clock to set the time of day in the various cities, while Seaman uses it to help dictate the incubation time of your grotesque, aquatic man-faced mutants. One other nice little feature that the internal clock and calendar allowed for, was time-sensitive bonuses and two particular titles make interesting (albeit minor) visual alterations should you set the date to 31st October, All Hallows' Eve.

If you fire up Midway's Ready 2 Rumble on this most macabre of dates, you'll notice some extra spooky spectators in among the cheering fans during the bouts:

See? It doesn't end there though, for if you fire up the sequel Ready 2 Rumble: Round 2 you'll be treated to a fairly grotesque new canvas in the ring - one which is again adorned with a quartet of skellingtons, along with the ambiguous text 'Plays well with others. Well, most of the time':

There are plenty of other downloadable bonuses for Dreamcast games (see Sonic Adventure for the main ones), and plenty of Halloween and horror themed games and levels within said games, but we thought it was worth giving this fairly obscure little bonus an airing on this most spooky of days.

Found any more? Let us know in the comments, in our Facebook group or on Twitter. Pumpkin Hill doesn't count, by the way.

The Sega Dreamcast Software Creation Standards Guidebook

There are certain aspects of game development that, unless you're in the business, you probably wouldn't ever be aware of. Just like every industry, there are rules and procedures that must be followed, specifications and standards that must be adhered to. I'm sure everyone reading this who works in a particular sector will know things about their own line of work that others outside would be completely unaware of; rules that need to be followed, boxes that need to be ticked and all manner of bespoke forms and checklists that need to be filled in appropriately in order to meet the requirements of the particular field. As stated, the games industry is no different and by extension the Dreamcast falls inside this remit.

Ever wondered why certain Dreamcast games allow you to hide the pause menu with X + Y but others don't? Or why it doesn't matter which controller port the keyboard is plugged into? Or even why the splash screens that appear when you power on a Dreamcast appear in a particular order? Well, it's because Sega - like every console manufacturer - set out all the rules of producing games for its system in a 'developers guidebook.' A precise set of do's and don't's for putting software out on the Dreamcast. And now, you can download and have a read through this fascinating publication.

Weighing in at over 100 pages, the Sega Dreamcast Software Creation Standard Guidebook goes into minute detail explaining how developers should order game intro screens and demo modes, how the software should react if a controller is removed during gameplay, best practices when including violence and gore in Dreamcast games, and how best the VMU should store save data. There are schematics and flow plans of how boot sequences should work, and even offers guidance on the reasons why the official Dreamcast light gun from PAL and NTSC-J regions is hardwired not to work with US light gun compatible games.

As you can probably tell from the images dotted throughout this article, the guide is very much a utilitarian publication, eschewing fancy graphics and images for pages of text meant to be used by developers. That said, it does have some nice incidental graphics (such as the orange triangle motif which echos the US Dreamcast packaging) and is very clean in overall layout.

I'm not totally sure if this document has ever previously been made available online for us - the great gaming proletariat - to cast our unwashed eyes over, but by hitting that lovely download link below you can now grab a copy for yourself. Naturally, this appears to be a US-centric document but I'm sure the PAL and NTSC-J arms had their own versions. In any case, maybe print this one out and keep it on a shelf or something.

Our thanks go to the anonymous former Dreamcast developer who supplied this for sharing.

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Intrepid Izzy Reaches Kickstarter Funding Goal

It looks like there'll be at least one new game coming to the Dreamcast in 2018, as Senile Team's Intrepid Izzy hit its €35,000 Kickstarter funding goal with mere hours to go. The impressive 2D platformer is also due to come to both PS4 and PC, and will feature Metroid style gameplay and a central character who can acquire different abilities depending on the costume being worn.

Senile Team recently released a playable demo of Intrepid Izzy for Dreamcast, and you can grab the burnable file here. You can also check out our preview article here. I spoke to lead designer Roel van Mastbergen about the project and how running a Kickstarter project affected his nerves:

"It wasn't easy, that's for sure! Managing the Intrepid Izzy campaign was the first thing I did in the morning and the last thing before I went to sleep, with few breaks in between. And with the funding advancing only very slowly most of the time, staying motivated was a real challenge as well. But we made it in the end, so we are all feeling very thankful, excited to complete the game and hopeful to make it exceed everyone's expectations."

- Roel van Mastbergen, Senile Team

Having played the demo, and looking at Senile Team's previous output on the Dreamcast (Rush Rush Rally Racing and Beats of Rage) we're pretty confident that Intrepid Izzy will be yet another highly polished indie title for the system.

I was also lucky enough to take part in episode 115 of the SEGA Nerds podcast, the SEGA Nerdcast in which Roel was also a guest, and he spoke openly about the Kickstarter and the influences other games have had on the development of Intrepid Izzy. Check it out here.

Did you back Intrepid Izzy? Are you excited for the future of the Dreamcast? Let us know in the comments, on Twitter or in our Facebook group.

Related articles

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Atomiswave Dev Kit 'SystemX' Discovered, Contains Fragments Of Unreleased Game 'Chicago 1929'

Ah, the Atomiswave. A beloved arcade system developed by Sammy that has its roots firmly planted in the fertile foothills of the NAOMI system heartlands, the Atomiswave is viewed by many as something of an extension of the Dreamcast family - indeed, our own 'Expanding the Dreamcast Collection' series goes into great depth looking at the Atomiswave, its hardware, some of its finest games and the link to the Dreamcast family.

The Atomiswave arcade system

With this connection in mind, a recent discovery may excite those interested in both the Dreamcast and the Atomiswave - an innocuous white box that looks for all intents and purposes like a standard Dreamcast dev unit; but one with the label 'SystemX' stuck over the familiar Dreamcast logo.

The Atomiswave dev kit, SystemX

After further investigation of the SystemX, owner Brian Hargrove has deduced that this is pretty clearly a Dreamcast development unit converted into an Atomiswave development kit...and even more intriguing is that it appears to contain fragments of a game that never saw a final release - Chicago 1929. Here, Brian explains how he came to own the SystemX and what he's discovered about the technical side of things:

POD 2 / POD Speedzone Online Multiplayer Highlights

As I'm sure you're aware, POD 2 (aka POD Speedzone) is the latest Dreamcast title to be restored with its full compliment of online functions. Thanks to the stellar work of programmer Shuouma and the assistance of Pcwzrd at Dreamcast Live, POD 2 can now be enjoyed as it was meant to be - with four players battling it out over the internet, across any of the futuristic circuits that are littered with hazards and weapon pickups.

This past weekend, I was lucky enough to be able to take my Dreamcast back online via the DreamPi and get involved with an online gaming session organised by the folks from the Dreamcast-Talk forum, and I have to admit - it was pretty awesome. My only prior experience with POD 2 was in its offline guise, and I found the game to be pretty lacklustre. Chuck in a grid of human controlled adversaries though, and the game is transformed into something quite special. Below you'll find a little video detailing the session I was involved in.

Thanks to everyone who made it a really positive online gaming experience. If you'd like to know more about DreamPi or playing online with your Dreamcast, be sure to check out Dreamcast Live or the blog of Luke Benstead, creator of the DreamPi.

Thoughts? Let us know in the comments or join the discussion in our Facebook group or on Twitter.

Artist Owns Inktober With Series Of Shenmue Watercolours

Inktober is an online initiative which challenges the more artistic among us to pick up a pen (or a pencil/brush/pile of elephant dung) and create a new work for every day of the month of October. It seems to be a really popular endeavour and social media is usually awash with all manner of awesome drawings around this time every year. You can find out more about Inktober here.

The reason I bring Inktober up though, is because one rather talented artist (who also happens to be a wrestler, by the way) has been steadily tweeting watercolour renditions of scenes from Yu Suzuki's epic Shenmue. The scenes will no doubt be familiar to anyone with more than a passing interest in Ryo Hazuki's adventure, and there are lots of references to some of the more humorous aspects - as well as the more poignant moments - of the game.

Artist Joe Klander - also known by his wrestling alter ego Uncle Clutch - kindly allowed us the reproduce his sterling efforts here, and we also asked him about why he chose to bring Shenmue to life through the power of watercolours:

The Email That Signalled The End Of The Dreamcast

We recently looked at the steady trickle of press releases that were delivered to media outlets, in which Sega's plans to reposition itself as a third party developer and publisher were revealed. As much as we champion the birth and life of the Dreamcast, the demise of the console and the afterlife which is almost entirely fan-supported is also our bread and butter here at the Junkyard, and sometimes we find ourselves privy to stuff that the public probably wouldn't ever get to see. With this in mind, let us turn our attention to something rather awesome: the actual email from January 2001 that was sent out by Sega of America Director of Development Technology John Byrd, in which the death of the Dreamcast was all but confirmed.

I'm pretty sure that this email has never been published online, and while the middle section is just the standard press release I'm sure you've seen before, the introductory section and - most importantly - the final couple of paragraphs make for some very interesting reading. John Byrd is an industry veteran with over 20 years of experience working in games and you can see the passion for the Dreamcast in his words. That said, there's a lot of stuff in here that never came to fruition - the mention of the set top box being made in partnership with Pace, for example. But this sign off is what really gave me a lump in the throat:

"If anybody has a right to be bitter about DC not becoming the dominant platform, I do. But my job and yours is to make good games for the DC. In that regard, you and I don't have a damn thing to be ashamed about."

Never a truer word said, Mr Byrd. Now, on to the (even more) juicy stuff. Here's the full email, unedited apart from the redacted parts where the recipient's details have been removed. For those who don't know, the term 'elite' was used for those on a particular mailing list - developers and publishers working with Sega on the Dreamcast project.

To make navigation easier, I've split the email into three parts with headings so you can skip past the press release if desired. I also liked the idea of highlighting certain interesting passages in a similar style to that weird-ass book House of Leaves, so that's why some of the text is highlighted in different colours. I decided against making certain paragraphs back-to-front or upside down. I'll leave that shit to Danielewski-San.

A Strange Bizarre Creations CD Appears...

We've covered Metropolis Street Racer with alarming regularity in the recent past, looking at some cool locations and trackside details you may have missed; the mystery of the hidden missing persons posters and finally the treasure trove of development images and press releases we were sent by a mysterious benefactor. If you've never heard of MSR, it's a racing game set in three cities around the world and spawned the seminal Xbox series Project Gotham Racing. Also, what are you doing here if you've never heard of MSR? Go and play it!

Anyway, said mysterious benefactor has once again bequeathed The Dreamcast Junkyard with a fairly esoteric item related - we think - in some way to Metropolis Street Racer, and here it is:

As you can see, it's a CD case. The cover shows a bunch of car keys with a Dreamcast logo on the keyring, and the date '30.03.99,' which equates to the 30th March 1999 by UK date standards. Or any standard come to think of it, there only being 12 months and all.

The spine of the case has a sticker with 'Invitation Cover 9.3.99' written in biro (bit of an inconsistency there, Columbo fans):

The CD-R itself has 'Invitation Cover 9/3/99 Bizarre Creations Confidential' written on it in marker:

The back of the case is empty so there's no other detail as to how or why this thing exists, and delving into the contents of the CD itself, there aren't really any other clues to work with:

There are Quark Xpress, PhotoShop and TIFF files, along with a TrueType font file; and the image files are basically just the image from the font cover - a bunch of car keys and the date 30.09.1999 (well, the PSD file does - the TIFF is free of a date). Note: I can't open the Quark Xpress file because the last known person to use Quark Xpress vanished up his own backside 9 years ago and has never been seen since.

Quite what this date means and what the 'invitation' is for, I'm not totally sure but cross referencing this date with the MSR development diary we published a while back could shed some light. See, the penultimate entry in the dev diary is from 29th January 1999, and this passage references an upcoming demonstration of MSR to some 'Sega VIPs':

"Last week was the week of the big telly. We have to demo the game to some Sega VIPs next week, and showing it on a little 15" monitor or a 14" portable TV wasn't really showing it at its full potential. So we went out and got a HUGE 29" TV, which really makes it look cool! Matt (the Lead Coder) has it weighing down his desk and giving him eyestrain at the moment!"

The dates don't line up perfectly, but there in the same ball park so I'm guessing that the artwork on the CD-R, plus the use of the word 'invitation' has something to do with the previewing of MSR to various Sega bigwigs.

So, not the most Earth-shattering of items and nothing as exciting as the confidential press disk (from which the image above is from - see here), but I'm sure you'll agree that it is pretty interesting to see something like this which was never intended for public consumption. Thanks go once again to the nameless benefactor supplying us with all these goodies!

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Cave Story: The Dreamcast's Subterranean Gem

What's in a name? Quite a bit, actually. While some games available for the Dreamcast have pretty descriptive titles - Crazy Taxi, for example - others are sure to leave uninitiated gamers scratching their heads in confusion. Blue Stinger. Giant Killers. Cannon Spike. These are but a trio of games with titles that really don't give any hint as to the experience contained on the GD. Cave Story though? Well, just like the game that involves driving a cab around in a fairly unorthodox manner, the title of this particular piece of software perfectly sums up what the game is all about. You go on an adventure...in a cave. Simple. But what even is Cave Story? And when the heck did this game appear on the Dreamcast? Grab your head torches and guide ropes, and I'll explain.

See, Cave Story is a side-scrolling, rogue-like platform adventure set in a labyrinthine complex of weird and wonderful caves. There are hit points, NPCs to interactive with, fetch quests to embark upon, and all manner of weird enemies to engage in combat with; and the whole game has a charming pixel art style which is complimented by an outstanding chip tune soundtrack. The origins of Cave Story make for an interesting read, with the initial PC release coming in 2004. Since then developer Daisuke Amaya has gone on to create a plethora of critically acclaimed games; and Cave Story has been ported to an astonishing range of systems, one of which just happens to be the good old Dreamcast. The Dreamcast port came in 2013 thanks to the work of programmer 'histat,' when Cave Story's NXEngine was completely re-written specifically for Sega's hardware and a couple of variations of the game were released in different flavours. Namely as an SD card ISO file, and as a burnable disc image.

I have to be honest, when Cave Story came to the Dreamcast in 2013 I didn't really give it much attention and dismissed it - wrongly - as just another crappy-looking homebrew game. So what changed between then and now? Well, firstly I'm no longer an idiot (allegedly); and secondly the recent rise in popularity of games with a distinctly 8 or 16-bit visual aesthetic has really made me appreciate this style of game a lot more than I probably did in the past. Thirdly - and most importantly - I recently spotted a physical, boxed copy of Cave Story on eBay for less than the price of a trip to the cinema, so I jumped at the chance to own it.

The copy I have acquired is clearly the work of a dedicated Dreamcast fan who also happens to own a decent printer and a had a spare PAL game case to hand. There's no manual, but the CD does have some nice bespoke artwork and the front and back covers could easily pass for a proper retail release. Even though the game is actually free to download, the fact that the work of putting it into a case and adding disc art had already been done made the nominal fee a price worth paying...

The Mr Yukawa Dreamcast TV Commercials Have Been Translated

You. You there, reading this nonsense right now. Yes you! Do you know who Mr Yukawa is? Of course you do - he's the total legend of a bloke who not only ran Sega Japan back in the day (or something), but also had his image festooned across all manner of Dreamcast clobber once upon a time. He was also in the Shenmue bonus disc (read about it here) and even had his own Dreamcast game (read about it here). Mr Yukawa became something of an icon for Sega in his home country, and was the star of a series of TV commercials for the Dreamcast but until very recently these adverts were only available in their native tongue.

Enter Mr Jim M. Ballard, a polyglot with - by his own admission - far too much free time on his hands. The devil, it is said, makes work for these idle hands but we would vehemently disagree - especially since Jim turned said appendages to adding English subtitles to the entire series of Mr Yukawa Dreamcast adverts:

You can find the rest of the series here in Jim's YouTube playlist. Thanks to this dedication, the anglophones in the room can now also share the epic ups and downs of Mr Yukawa's struggle to make Sega great again.

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POD 2 Is Back Online

Hey there. Just me again. Erm...there's another online Dreamcast game back online and this time it's POD 2 (you'll know it as POD: Speedzone if you're from the colonies). Personally I've only ever played POD 2 offline, and always considered it to be an absolute dog's dinner of a game; but thanks to the skills bestowed upon code guru Shuouma, said game is now back online:

According to this article and video over at Dreamcast Live, the usual cost of entry is a DreamPi or a lesser spotted Dreamcast broadband adapter, plus a copy of the game (obviously); but I for one am hoping that the ability to play against other, real people will enhance the experience of POD 2. If the experience offered by Monaco Online is anything to go by then I'm pretty sure any fears of mediocrity will be quelled after about 30 seconds of play...but one can never be too sure. All joking aside, it's actually pretty incredible that online-enabled Dreamcast games are being brought back from the dead and I'm looking forward to trying POD 2 out during one of the regular Dreamcast-Talk gaming nights.

I suggest you grab a DreamPi or a BBA and get involved too. See you out on the track...

Source: Dreamcast Live

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